Orpheus and Eurydice
by Abagail Snow
Summary: In Panem, there was no limit to his power when he played and sang. No one and nothing could resist him. But he was struck silent on that fateful day, leaving her the key to save them. (Warning: Major Character Death)


_A/N: **promptsinpanem** (dot tumblr dot com) is back! This is my entry for epic romances, and is a role reversed version of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in Panem. Keep an eye out all week for a new one shot every day, and check out PiP on tumblr!_

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**Orpheus and Eurydice**_  
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On the day of their arranged wedding, there's a package left outside of her bedroom door. They're staying in their old apartment at the training center, the same place they'd stayed the nights before the Games. He's supposed to be in his bedroom, across the hall, but he stays with her because that's the arrangement they've found most comfortable.

She's in the shower when he finds the package, and she's just toweling off when he opens it. The room fills with a suffocating, rose scented perfume, and she assumes she accidentally triggered the wrong setting in the shower.

That's when she sees him pick up the full, white blossom. Time stands still as she watches his thumb brushes over a thorn and a single drop of blood springs free.

His body hits the floor before the blood does.

"He's gone," Haymitch tells her when he finds her, minutes later, curled around Peeta's lifeless body.

She doesn't believe him though. Snow is sending her a message, she's sure of it. He'll be able to fix Peeta once she's properly convinced him.

She only has to convince him.

Haymitch goes to call for an avox to take care of the body. While he's gone, she scrambles for the phone and shouts orders at an operator until she's connected to the president himself.

"Tragic," he says. "Young lovers separated by death, and on the day of their wedding no less."

"I need him," she says. "How can I convince you?"

She isn't good with words, not like Peeta. He is a muse for the written language, she believes. And when he speaks, no one, not even the heartless Snow, could resist him.

She'll never be able to express the depths of her feelings in this way. Will probably never love as selflessly as Peeta loves her. But Peeta's words have been silenced with a single drop of poison, and only she can save him now. She may not be able to woo Snow with her charm, but she'll walk through fire if she has to.

"These are grave accusations," he says, his voice unmoving. "But if it could truly be believed that your precious fiance was poisoned, perhaps there's an antidote."

She hates to give him the power, but she has no choice. Peeta's only mistake was loving her. She should be the one lifeless on the floor. Not him.

"To return to the world of the living," Snow says. "You must live through death itself. If your love is true, you can trust that he will follow you through hell, and come out the other side, without ever looking back."

She doesn't understand until the Peace Keepers come to collect her, taking Peeta's body too. They lead her to the caverns beneath the arena, and position her in a tube, locking the capsule shut. They continue on with Peeta's body, and she tries to follow, but can't, no matter how desperately she struggles.

There's no time to panic though. This is all a part of the game. She takes a moment to get her bearings. There's a backpack at her feet filled with a water bottle, some dried fruit, and a jacket. Wherever she's going she won't be there long, and she won't need a weapon to protect herself.

Not like the last Games.

She feels the ground rumble beneath her feet, and then she's pushed through the cavern and into daylight.

She stands alone on her platform, in the middle of a flat meadow. The wind that catches her hair feels real, but she knows it to be manufactured, just like the mockingjays that sing from the edge of the treeline. The cornucopia isn't in the middle of the arena like last year, this time she can barely make it out from her platform. But she sees it, high on the ridge of a hill that couldn't be closer than 10km.

"Peeta," she shouts, and her voice echos in the empty space.

"Katniss," he calls, his voice clear and beautiful and alive, just as it was before. "Katniss, what's going on?"

She's about to turn around. About to look at him, to touch him, to believe what she is hearing. But then she remembers his words. _Without ever looking back_.

"We have to go to the cornucopia," she says, her back still to him. "But you have to stay behind me."

They walk briskly across the field. She's not sure if there's a time limit, but she doesn't want to take her chances. The meadow gives way to a forest , and the floor grows rocky as they reach the base of the hill.

"What happened?" Peeta asks, when she's finally slowed her pace.

"You died," she says.

"Will you just slow down for a second?" he says. She feels him reach for her hand and she pulls it away sharply. "Will you look at me?" he says, sounding hurt.

"I can't," she says. "Follow me, please. It will be over soon."

Night begins to fall, and she doesn't trust herself to make the hike in the dark. It's not too high a climb, but it looks steep at places, and she has Peeta to worry about too.

They find a cave similar to the one they stayed in during the last Games. She has to almost guide him in a circle so she can keep him safely behind her, and she lays with her back to him, looking out the mouth of the cave to keep watch.

"Look at me, please," he begs.

Her heart clenches in her chest and a tear bleeds from her eye. She wants for him to hold her. Wants to rest her ear against his chest, and listen to the beat of his heart through eternity.

"I can't," she says.

Snow has found her greatest weakness, one she hadn't known she possessed. She needs this boy more than air in this moment, and she has been denied her only sustainable breath.

Daylight peers over the horizon before she finds sleep. She splits the dried fruit in half and places a handful behind her back, before she eats her own share.

They hike up the ridge, her finding the safest path for him to follow. It only takes a few hours to make the climb, and she starts to feel anxious towards the end because she knows that they will be at the end soon.

When the cornucopia comes into view, she sprints towards it. Peeta's false leg makes him slower, but it also makes it easier for her to hear him, clumping behind her. She's just passed through entrance when she hears a thousand terrors unleashed.

Mutts growl, jabberjays squawk, tracker jackers swarm. It deafens her, paralyzes her with fear. Through the insanity, she thinks she hears Peeta cry out for her, and instinctively she turns to help him.

The arena is calm, and peaceful behind her. The sky is a deep blue, the color of Peeta's eyes, without a cloud in the sky to blemish it. Again she can hear the sweet song of the mockingjays that line the edge of the woods, giving her a sense of ease. Peeta is perfectly safe, framed by the mouth of the cornucopia, as he takes his final steps towards the threshold to close the distance between them. And it's the most beautiful sight she's ever seen. She breathes for the first time – since breath was stolen from him, and reaches out to cup his cheek in her hand.

"You're safe," she says.

A cannon fires and Peeta collapses to the ground, just outside the cornucopia's walls.

She shatters at the seams and hurls herself towards him, but a force field closes around her, blocking her path. She can do nothing but watch, as a hovercraft takes his body away. Moments later, a second hovercraft comes to collect her, but she refuses it.

She will never leave the arena, not without him. No longer does she need to convince Snow of her devotion. She has convinced herself. A conviction so strong, that if she can not save Peeta from death, then the reaper can take her as well.

And so, she takes to the tree line, climbs the highest tree, and sings with the mockingjays, waiting for death to bring her to her love again.

The birds learn her songs and sing them as if they were their own, and when those of Panem think of love, they sing about "The Boy and His Mockingjay."


End file.
